Scientist Extraordinaire

Challenge: Name: Jennifer Locke Visual Numerics wanted to translate, Title: Senior Software Engineer test, and document its existing library of mathematical algorithms for use by .NET Company: Visual Numerics Inc., a Rogue Wave Software Company developers, so applications under development could benefit from the added speed Solution: IMSL C# Numerical Library of complex algorithms without requiring a PhD to re-create it in Visual C#.

solution: The team already had translated its Einstein would be impressed… algorithms to Java, so they used the Visual Studio Java to Visual C# converter Jennifer Locke makes a point of staying fit—even if she can’t stay young. “Dare I to translate the algorithms for its share my first software project and reveal my age?” she asks. “My first project was IMSL Visual C# Numerical Library for in high school writing your basic “hello world” on a Tandy with a cassette player Microsoft .NET Applications. that acted as the hard drive!” At her first job, she added messaging to a Fortran application on a VAX VMS dev tools: system. The application could then read data from mag tapes as a background Visual Studio 2003, 2005, 2008 process, rather than tying up a terminal server. Through the evolution of Visual Studio Java to technology, Locke has continued programming—including experience in Visual C# converter algorithm development. “When I’m not programming, you’ll probably find Windows and me at the gym swimming laps and weightlifting, or at the park for a brisk Windows Server walk. I love to play sports—volleyball, softball.” Documented using MSBuild Locke, who grew up in rural Missouri, has always been the studious type. She and SandCastle graduated valedictorian of her high school class of 29 seniors, and now is working at the library—the IMSL Library, that is. The IMSL Library is a broad set of tested, documented, and supported mathematical and statistical Results: algorithms that can save programmers time and money by not having to Visual Numerics now offers a complete, recreate the algorithms. current, fully tested and easy-to-use suite of algorithms available to .NET developers and proven to run in a Windows or “The IMSL algorithms collection has been developed and refined for almost Windows Server environment. 40 years and originally developed in Fortran, C, then Java,” Locke says. “We saw an opportunity to adopt the Microsoft® Visual C#® language, and since we had solved many of the challenges in supporting more advanced math and statistics in languages like Java, the port to Visual C# was very fast for us. We use the Microsoft Visual Studio® plug-in to convert our code from Java to Visual C#.”

Version 6.0 of the fully functional IMSL Visual C# library releases in October 2009, supporting Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 and 3.5. A new version will be released MORE

EXPECT THE UNEXPECTED The .NET Framework is“ important to IMSL Visual C# Numerical Library, as it has a sizable developer community, a portion of which are involved in developing math and statistical applications that benefit from Visual Numerics’ 40 years of experience in math and statistical algorithm design. ”

in the first quarter of 2010 to support .NET 4.0.

“The .NET Framework is important to IMSL Visual C# Numerical Library, as it has a sizable developer community, a portion of which are involved in developing math and statistical applications that benefit from Visual Numerics’ 40 years of experience in math and statistical algorithm design,” Locke said.

The IMSL Visual C# library is easy to use and accompanied by excellent documentation and APIs designed specifically for Microsoft developers using Visual C# .NET. “Windows® is our primary development platform, but we test and fully

We’re really looking forward to the Visual Studio 2010 release, “ as we will launch a version of the IMSL Visual C# Numerical Library that takes advantage of the new SMP threading library in .NET 4.0. ”

EXPECT THE UNEXPECTED